


Sleep

by paradisewaiting



Series: Breakdown [4]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: AU, Dogs, I needed to write angst, I'm Sorry, Jeeps, Literal Sleeping Together, M/M, Michael Nyman, PTSD, Panic Attacks, Piano, Sleep, Sleeping Together, Sleeptalking, Social Anxiety, Some sort of AU, Stuff, The heart asks for pleasure first, The piano, Watching Someone Sleep, idk what to tag, naps, panic disorder, there might be smut later
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-04
Updated: 2015-01-04
Packaged: 2018-03-05 07:16:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3110891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/paradisewaiting/pseuds/paradisewaiting
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three days and Levi still had Eren’s sweater. He’d wear it around the house, if he had to leave his room. Hange asked about it once and Levi had ignored them.<br/>“Aw, look, you have a security blanket and it’s not even yours. Cute.”<br/>“Shut it, glasses. It’s comfy.”<br/>But it was more than that and Levi knew it, and almost hated that fact. He had slept with it every night.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sleep

                Three days and Levi still had Eren’s sweater. He’d wear it around the house, if he had to leave his room. Hange asked about it once and Levi had ignored them.  
“Aw, look, you have a security blanket and it’s not even yours. Cute.”  
“Shut it, glasses. It’s comfy.”  
But it was more than that and Levi knew it, and almost hated that fact. He had slept with it every night.

                Levi was fidgety. He sat on the edge of his bed and stared at the sweater, neatly folded, in the corner. He stood up in a huff and quickly walked over to it, picked it up, then sighed in frustration and put it back down to walk angry circles in his room. He couldn’t explain this strange attachment he had with the sweater, it was illogical and that drove him crazy. He grunted in frustration and snatched sweater off the table it was on and stormed out his door, through the house to the door, slipping on his own jacket before heading out to his Jeep.

                He pulled up to the vet and didn’t give himself time to change his mind as he stormed out of his Jeep and through the door. He was about to toss the sweater behind the desk when his eyes focused and he realized it wasn’t Eren sitting behind the desk. Instead, a brunette girl with a pony tail was seated at the computer. “Hello! Can I help you with something?” She was cheery. Way too cheery. “Where’s Eren.” Levi snapped. The girl seemed taken aback a little. “Oh, he doesn’t work today. I can leave a message for him if you want. Are you a friend?” Levi paused and thought, the fastest way to get rid of this sweater and end this weird attachment would be to say yes. “Yes.” The scowl never left his face; this was annoying and was taking more time than it should. “O-okay…I can call him if you want…?” The girl was looking at him suspiciously; Levi was too frustrated to care. He nodded and watched as the girl punched buttons on the computer then picked up the receiver of the phone, checking the computer screen as she dialed the numbers. “Hi, Eren? Yes, it’s Sasha at the clinic…mhmm. No, I’m sorry, there’s a man here looking for you…uhm…” She held the phone to her chest and looked up at Levi. “What’s your name?” Levi sighed, he wanted to rip that phone out of her hand and tell the boy to get his ass down here and take his stupid sweater, but his heart raced at the idea. “Levi.” He said quietly and began fidgeting with the edge of the sweater in his hands. He heard the laughter on the other end of the line and snapped his vision up to the phone. “Oh…ohhh. Okay. Yeah, I’ll tell him, see ya.” She hung up the phone and looked up at Levi. “He’s on his way, he said he’ll meet you in the parking lot.” She smiled. Too happy.

                Levi paced around the front of his Jeep waiting for Eren, the sweater sitting on the hood. When the beat up civic finally rolled into the parking lot Levi was perched on the hood of his Jeep, the sweater beside him, smoking a cigarette. Eren parked beside him and crawled out, looking at him amused. Levi turned and scowled at him. “You wanna get lunch next door? It’s quiet. And warm.”  
“I didn’t come here for a lunch date.” He cringed at his own wording and picked up the sweater from beside him. “Here, take this.” He tossed the sweater at Eren. The boy laughed. “Oh, shit. I totally forgot you had this.” Levi rolled his eyes and climbed off his Jeep, made to get back in and leave. “Hey, I wasn’t kidding about lunch.” He heard from the other side of his vehicle. “I don’t eat out.” He leaned against the hood of his Jeep, looked at a very sad looking Eren. “Stop it.” Again. It was out of him before he realized he had said anything. Eren looked up at him confused. “Okay, that’s the second time you’ve done that. Why do you keep telling me to stop when I literally haven’t done anything?” Levi sighed in frustration. “Nevermind, let’s get some food.” He moved around the Jeep. “What, really?”  
“You deaf? This was your idea.” He stopped and looked behind him at Eren, who had cracked a grin.  
“I know I just…nevermind. Let’s go get food.” He said, hurrying to catch up.

                The café was warm and lit all in yellows, only two other people were seated at the tables. Levi quickly moved to the back corner table and seated himself against the wall. He could see everything from there. No surprises. Safe.

                It seemed to take forever for their food to arrive after they ordered. Levi’s knees bounced and he picked at the edge of the table nervously. When he had gouged a hold into the edge of the table he moved on to picking at his fingers since he couldn’t chew them anymore, they were too short from chewing already. Eren looked at him. “Hey…” He reached forward and touched Levi’s hands where they rested on the table. Levi’s eyes snapped to Eren’s hand on both of his. Eren jerked his hand away. “Sorry…I just…you’re gonna make you yourself bleed.” He looked around the small café and spotted the waitress that had taken their order. “Look, I can tell you weren’t prepared for this. That’s fine, I don’t want to freak you out. We can leave if you want.” Levi scowled at him. “I’m fine. I’ll…be fine.” He went back to picking at his fingers, knee still bouncing. Eren returned his scowl. “Give me your hand.” He demanded. Levi shot him a look that said he was going to leave if Eren kept this up. “Relax, just give me your hand, nothing like that.” He didn’t wait for Levi to comply. Eren hastily grabbed Levi’s hand and flipped it over, pressing his thumbs into tense muscles there, kneading. Levi looked at him confused. “I used to get really bad cramps in my hands because of piano. My mom used to have to do this for me.” He said quietly, Levi just stared in silence.

                Their food came shortly after and Eren nervously dropped Levi’s hand as the plates were set down. They ate in silence, Levi stealing confused glances of Eren; Eren avoiding them. “So…do you play?” Levi flicked his eyes back to Eren, who seemed to be interested in moving around a last piece of lettuce on his plate. Levi cocked his head and remained silent. Eren finally looked up. “The piano.” He said simply. Levi shook his head. “I know a little bit but I was never the one good at it.” Eren perked up a bit, obviously curious. “Not you? Then who?” Levi shook his head again. He wasn’t going there. “Okay…” Eren trailed off. “I’d really like to come play again. There’s just no way to make a piano work in my apartment.” He had gotten quite quiet. Like he was asking for some forbidden treasure. “You can come play.” Levi was shocked as the words just rolled out of him without thought. He immediately cringed. Eren looked at him, a mixture of shock and pure joy strewn across his face. “No one else plays it anymore.” Levi shrugged.

                Eren had followed Levi’s Jeep back to his house. Levi had cursed and scolded himself for being so impulsive and reckless; Hange wasn’t even home, if anything happened he’d be screwed. Kingston would call the hospital if it got bad and he’d have to deal with that all night. ‘I’ll be fine’ He told himself as the two entered the house silently. “Uhm…I just have to grab something, I’ll be up in a bit.” Levi broke off at the hallway and grabbed his things from his room. When he got to the library Eren was already seated at the piano but he was just staring at the keys like he expected them to jump to life and play themselves. “It’s a piano, not a player-piano.” Eren looked up. “Yeah, I just don’t know what to play.” Levi pointed to the chest he had rummaged through the last time. “It’s full of sheet music.” Moments later Eren was seated back at the piano. He started several different songs, stopping a few lines in and sighing. Finally he stacked all the music he had pulled out on the seat beside him and lowered his hands to the keys, playing from memory. The song he played was one unfamiliar to Levi but there was no denying it was beautiful. Fast paced and heavy; drifting from highs to lows. The way it echoed off the walls of the otherwise empty library was haunting and Levi was forced to watch as Eren played.  
“What is this?”  
“The heart asks for pleasure first by Michael Nyman. It’s from the movie The Piano.”  
“Never seen it.”  
“You should. It’s good. Beautiful music.”  
“I hear that.”

                The time passed like that, Eren playing mostly from memory, Levi commenting from time to time. Mostly he stayed silent and scratched away at his sketchbooks. Eren was playing something slow and soothing and when he finished there was only silence in the room, not even the sounds of pencil on paper than he had expected. Eren leaned around the piano and seen Levi’s head resting on the arm of the couch he had been perched on. He smiled and walked over to the man that was now fast asleep.  It couldn’t be easy, he thought, living with that much stress all the time. He tried to pull the blanket the older man had wrapped around himself earlier farther up but found it securely lodged under Levi so he shrugged off his sweater and laid it across his chest and arms and went to wander the shelves of books. When he found one he returned to the couch to find Levi had shifted, rolled onto his side. He was clutching the sweater to his chest, like it was a childhood blanket he had had for ages. Eren smiled as a thought dawned on him but he shook it away and sat on the opposite end of the couch.

                Levi woke with start, like he always did. He wasn’t in his room, where was he? He looked around, panicked, until he seen Eren across from him, passed out with a book on his chest. There was something in his hands. He looked down to see another of Eren’s sweaters in his arms. He glanced back at the boy across from him before clutching it to his chest and burying his face in it. It didn’t smell of pets and disinfectant like the other one. It just smelled of Eren. Levi stood, put his things back in the basket and grabbed the book from Eren’s chest and put it back on the shelf. He sat in a chair nearby and stared at Eren while he chewed his thumb for what seemed like hours before he sighed in frustration, walked over to the boy and tapped his shoulder. “Eren, you can’t sleep on this couch.” The boy groaned. Levi rolled his eyes. “You have to go home, Eren.” Levi thought for a moment. “Or sleep in one of the spare rooms.”  He was whispering softly. It’s not like the kid was hurting anyone and it _was_ the middle of the night now. “I just…wanna…” The boy was talking in his sleep now. Levi watched intently. “Sleep…”  
“You can sleep, just not here, Eren.”  
“With you…” Levi froze. Not what he was expecting. He didn’t know what to say so he just watched.  
“Just sleep…” Levi stared at the boy.  
“Why?” He asked, too curious to help himself. The boy’s face contorted and Levi thought he had blown it for sure, the boy was going to wake up, but he face relaxed again.  
“Protect him…” Was all the boy said, and shifted then shifted back again.  
“Too beautiful to be that scared…” Levi’s heart raced and pounded in his ears. He had to take a moment to calm himself down. Levi sighed and looked at the sweater in his hand. He was about to do something stupid. Something really fucking stupid.  
“Okay, Eren, let’s go to bed, then.” He said quietly.  
“Okay…” Eren shifted and sat up, eyes barely open, drifting back asleep as he sat upright. Levi groaned quietly and shook his head. He’d never seen anyone sleep so deeply, or sleepwalk, or talk in their sleep in his life. He didn't want to, but he seen no other way to get the brunet safely into a bed, so he stooped down and scooped up Eren’s hand, pulling his arm up.  The boy stood and Levi led him slowly out of the library. Luckily his bedroom was at the bottom on the stairs. It dawned on Levi too late that he could have led Eren to a spare room and just left him there, but he was already curled up in Levi’s bed, sleeping soundly. Levi could go sleep in a spare room, he supposed, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to actually sleep and would wind up in the recliner in Hange’s room anyway. He sighed, clicked the light off and climbed into bed, leaving as much space between himself and Eren as he could. He laid awake for a long time before the bed moved and he felt warmth beside him. He rolled to see Eren had maneuvered himself closer, now lying on his back. Levi propped himself up on his elbow and looked at him; chest rising and falling slowly, mouth slightly open. He lay like that for a while, just watching, before he rested his head back down on his pillow and just listened to Eren’s steady breathing, eventually falling asleep to the sound.

**Author's Note:**

> It's really late and my internet's been on and off all evening. If this actually posts I will update everything in the morning.  
> Also the song Eren plays is amazing and you all should go listen to it on youtube. I had it on repeat while I wrote this.  
> You've probably noticed my writing changed a bit, it's because Levi's changed a bit. My writing changes with his mood. I can't help that.  
> ~~  
> I fixed what I could. /Shrugs/ The next one will be interesting. *wink wonk*


End file.
